Government Cashes in With Double-Taxed Cars From Today

The new UK car tax system kicks in today, and motoring organisations say the government's going to pull in extra cash thanks to the way sellers of used cars can't get refunds for partial months of road tax.

Buyers of cars have to tax their new cars on the day they buy them now that the tax belongs to the owner and not the car, but sellers can't get a refund for anything other than full months -- so if a car's sold on the first day of a month the DVLA effectively gets a free extra month of duplicated tax revenue for that period.

The AA says this means the government may be getting a "double money" cash bonanza from sellers.

Meanwhile, those trying to use the new DVLA web site for upgrading their tax are struggling to do so, with the site finding it hard to cope with demand from new digital tax registrants. The good news for the DVLA is it expects to save £10m a year from not having to print and post the classic old discs. [BBC]